Overcoming adversity was the theme of the night for Iola High’s girls, and it paid off with a victory.
Already without the services of starting senior Keira Fawson, who aggravated a nose injury in a practice session this week, the Mustangs also had to deal with foul trouble and some rotten luck at the free throw line against Burlington.
Undaunted, Iola turned to its defense, holding Burlington scoreless over the last 2:48, after the Wildcats had closed to within a single point, 34-33.
At the other end, the Mustangs found their free throw shooting stroke at the perfect time, hitting 6 of their last 8 attempts in a 40-33 win.
The victory marks a bit of redemption for Iola, who had lost a heartbreaker to Burlington in similar fashion in December — also without Fawson in the lineup.
Alana Mader, inserted into the starting lineup with Fawson’s absence, and Harper Desmarteau shared high-scoring honors with 11 points each.
The Mustangs carry a 5-8 record into Tuesday’s home tilt with Santa Fe Trail.
IOLA’S BOYS weren’t as fortunate.
Burlington took the lead for good with a 7-0 run starting at the midpoint of the third quarter — part of a larger 21-6 run — to pull away down the stretch and win 65-54.
Iola had rallied after some early torrid shooting from Burlington. The Wildcats drained seven 3-pointers in the first quarter alone to take a 33-30 lead into halftime.
The Mustangs opened the second half with a 10-4 run, capped by Landon Weide’s 3-point play at the 4:18 mark of the third quarter.
But Burlington settled down from there, taking advantage of several offensive rebounds to go ahead 44-40. Cortland Carson’s 3-pointer sliced Iola’s deficit to a singe point, but a critical offensive foul early in the fourth quarter on Weide negated a layup and sent the senior guard to the bench with four fouls.
Burlington rattled off eight points in a row to lead, 52-43.
Iola drew no closer than six points the rest of the way.
Carson scored 25 and Weide 19 for Iola, which fell to 8-5 on the season.
